Beneficiary institutions in Nigerian higher education are to benefit from the 2023 Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) intervention of N198 billion, representing 62 per cent of the approved N320 billion by the government.

The TETFund acting director of public affairs, Abdulmumin Oniyangi, made this available to journalists in a document.

The document, which is also available on the Fund’s website, highlighted the breakdown of the allocation to beneficiary universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

Mr Oniyangi, while noting that the interventions were for public tertiary institutions, said that the Act establishing the Fund does not include private institutions in its intervention lines.

He added that TETFUND interventions also include research.

“Research is part of our intervention lines; we do content as well, not just infrastructure.

“Sending lecturers to do MSC, PhD and all that is in research and in the research itself, there is what we call Institution-Based Research (IBS) and this is also available, not to mention the National Research Fund (NRF).

“So our intervention is not skewed against anything. In any case, research cannot be undertaken if there is no equipment. So everything is working together,” he said.

Meanwhile, the executive secretary of the Fund, Sonny Echono, had earlier presented letters of allocation to heads of the beneficiary institutions at the 2023 TETFund Strategic Planning Workshop held in Abuja.

Mr Echono had told the institution heads that the allocation was for projects categorised under a segment of the Fund’s intervention termed “Annual Direct Disbursement.”

Highlighting the breakdown, he said under the Annual Direct Disbursement, funds were shared in line with the stipulated ratio in the Establishment Act equally with each tier of tertiary institutions, regardless of size or needs.

On other projects to be carried out in 2023 outside the annual direct disbursements, the executive secretary said that the fund had provided a budget of N30 billion for high-impact projects in selected institutions across its three tiers of beneficiaries in the six geopolitical zones across the country.

The fund, which is allocated under TETFund’s Special High Impact Intervention, indicates that six universities would get N3 billion each, while N1 billion each would be given to six polytechnics and six colleges of education spread across the geo-political zones.

“For this year, the Special High Impact will be given to six universities, and the six universities are IBB University, Lapai, Niger State, from the North Central Zone; and Federal University, Wukari, Taraba State, from the North-East.

“Federal University, Birnin-Kebbi, from the North-West; Imo State University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences from the South-East; Edo State University in the South-South; and Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, from the South-West.

“The beneficiary polytechnics are Federal Polytechnics, Offa, Kwara; Federal Polytechnic, Gombe; Federal Polytechnic, Kabo, Kano; Anambra State Polytechnic, Mgbakwu; Federal Polytechnic of Oil and Gas, Bonny; and Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igbo-Ora.

“Also, Plateau State College of Education, Gindiri; Federal College of Education, Yola; Federal College of Education, Zaria; Enugu State College of Education, Enugu; Delta State College of Education, Mosogar; and Tai Solarin College of Education, Omu-Ijebu,” he said.

Mr Echono also explained that 20 per cent of disbursements amounting to N64.2 billion would be utilised for special disbursement, adding that special intervention is at the discretion of the Board of Trustees of TETFund, for which allocations are zonal-based in line with the mandate of the agency.

He also said that other intervention activities have been earmarked for the year, such as the establishment of micro-teaching laboratories in some selected colleges of education in the six geopolitical zones of the country.

He listed the colleges as the Federal College of Education, Otukpo, Benue State; the Federal College of Education, Jama’are, Bauchi State; the Federal College of Education, Sokoto State; and the Federal College of Education, Isu, Ebonyi State.

Others are the Federal College of Education, Ekiadolor, Edo State; and the Federal College of Education, Iwo, Osun State, noting that the N500 million is allocated to each of the colleges.

He said other allocations included N2 billion for teaching practise exercises in colleges of education and N1 billion for the establishment of the Diaspora Research Centre, to be sited at the University of Ibadan, to create a platform for Nigerians home and abroad to exchange ideas and discoveries in innovation, research and development.

The TETFund boss also announced that N12 billion had been allocated for the completion of distressed projects and N3 billion for the establishment of innovation hubs across the geo-political zones of the country.

According to him, the National Research Fund (NRF) is aimed at revitalising the objectives of addressing the critical need for high-quality manpower to drive the nation’s economy and development aspirations towards attaining the nation’s Vision 20:20 and beyond.

He further explained that the intervention focused on applied research that addresses areas of national concern such as national security, national Integration and peace studies.

Other areas are education and training, economic development, agriculture, food security, and technology processes; power and energy; ICT and telecommunication; entrepreneurship and wealth creation; and environmental issues, among others.

Recall that TETFund was originally established as the Education Trust Fund (ETF) by Act No. 7 of 1993, as amended by Act No. 40 of 1998 (now repealed and replaced with the Tertiary Education Trust Fund Act 2011).

It is an intervention agency set up to provide supplementary support to all levels of public tertiary institutions, with the main objective of using funding alongside project management for the rehabilitation, restoration and consolidation of tertiary education in Nigeria.

(NAN)